“The last time we were paid our full salaries was the end of February, from there we were paid 50% of our salaries,” she said. “The company then failed to pay us at the end of June.
“They are telling us that they have asked the PIC to fund them so they can pay us. But we know that PIC has funded them, they are just playing delaying tactics. Some of our colleagues are being evicted because they can’t pay rent. They don’t know where they will be sleeping.”
Lebeko said four Daybreak Foods farms are in business rescue, affecting close to 3,000 employees.
The employees have accused the company of not being transparent with them, and failing to take responsibility for its failures.
“No-one has told us what is happening with the company, no-one is taking accountability, we are just left in the dark,” Lebeko said.
“We were told to stay at home because of the intervention by the SPCA, which had to put down those chickens because they were starving.
“The company did not have money to buy feed, and the chickens ended up eating each other. There was also an audit done, which found that the chickens that were being slaughtered were too small to go into the market. That is why the operations had to stop.”
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